Maxim

KNOW then, my brethren, that perfection is made up of little things well performed.

Michael Angelo was once engaged in executing a marble statue. The patron one day called on the artist in his studio and was surprised to find how slowly he had progressed in his work. 

"What have you done" he asked, "since I was last here?" "Oh" replied the sculptor, "I have retouched this part, polished that; I have softened this feature, have brought out that muscle, have given more expression to that lip, more energy to that limb." 

"But these are trifles," said his patron.  "Yes, but trifles go to make perfection, and perfection, I assure you, is no trifle."

Remember, then, that those little acts of devotion, of Christian courtesy and charity which you are daily called on to practice, may be trifles, but they are trifles which form the perfect man, and a perfect man is the noblest work of God.